Then, at the Chutter Munzil Palace (which is now the Club), Havelock, Outram and Sir Colin met, while the din of battle raged around. They laid their plans for the exodus of the garrison-laid them wisely and well. In the dead of night-a dark November night-silently and rapidly the beleaguered garrison sallied forth from the Residency, and, passing through lines of pickets carefully posted to guard their pathway, men, women children, wounded-every living soul, marched out; while th unconscious foe continued to pour their hail of fire, on th deserted building.

The fugitives carried with them what treasures they possesse as well as the King of Oude's jewels; they reached the Al Bagh in safety, whence they were sent to Cawnpore Allahabad.

Worn out with fatigue of mind and body, the brave Havel had finished his work. Attacked by dysentery-the scourg India-he was removed to the Dilkoosha, where he died, and buried close by, in the Alum Bagh.

This is the story which is whispered by every stone in Luc Can you wonder that, early and late, we, who vividly remem each detail of the story when first it reached us in En found our way back to the Residency and the Bailie Guard

CHAPTER VI.

AGRA.

"A palace lifting to eternal summer
Its marble halls from out a glossy bower
Of coolest foliage, musical with birds."

History-An Ideal Tomb of pure White Marble-Oriental Kith-and-Kin Love-A Neglected Burial-ground-Beside the River-A Plea for Cremation-Indian Laundries-Akbar's Harem-His Fort at Agra-Sandalwood Gates of Somnath-Horse-shoes-Destruction of the Temple of Somnath-Zenana Pavilions-Pearl Mosque-Ruined City of Futteypore

Sicri.

We were speaking some time ago of the relative joys of sight and hearing, and observing the curious fact that nine people out of ten say they would rather be deaf than blind. I think one half hour in Agra would convince them that no wealth of words falling on the most willing ear could ever convey the exceeding delight with which the eye, at one rapid glance, fills the whole mind in presence of any beautiful object whatsoever. And of all the lovely things in creation, whether of nature or of art, none has ever conveyed, to my mind at least, the exquisite delight of that fairylike, snowy, palace-among-tombs, the Taj Mahal; but as to conveying the faintest impression of it in words, or with black-and-white engravings, why the attempt is mere folly.

In olden days, the Eastern poet Sadi complained that his friends could not sympathise with his wearisome praises of his

love; he said that could they but once behold her beauty they might understand his song, which must seem but as an idle tale to those whose minds had not been steeped in the same sweet influences.

A

So it is with the loveliness of this fairy architecture. cluster of pearly, snow-white domes nestling round one grand central dome, like a gigantic pearl; these crowning a building all of purest, highly-polished marble, so perfect in its proportions, so lovely in its design, so simply restful to the eye, and withal so amazingly intricate in its simplicity, that it is in truth more like some strange dream in marble, than like a work of human hands. Its four sides being precisely similar, it follows that from whatever side you behold it, its perfect form never varies. Far from the city or from any other building, it stands alone in its transcendent loveliness, having its own rich Eastern garden on one side, while the warm red sandstone wall above which it is raised is washed by the blue waters of the sacred Jumna.

This noble deep red wall, which is sixty feet in height, surrounds the whole garden, a space of about forty acres, and the greater part of it, even those unseen parts down by the river, is all beautifully carved with great groups of flowers, as much like nature as any pious Mohammedan dares represent ; part, too, is inlaid with white marble. The carved niches of that red stone seem to be all inlaid with some rare pattern of emeralds, which as you approach, prove to be living gems— myriads of green parrots, which dart forth with glittering sunshine on their wings.

Just above the river, as I said, stands a great quadrangle of pure white marble. It is 900 feet square and forty feet high-a meet foundation whereon to rest so fair a structure. On either side stands a small mosque of red sandstone, inlaid with black and white marble, and crowned with three white marble domes. A second marble terrace rises from the first, and from its four corners spring four tall and graceful minarets about 150 feet in height, also of pure marble, and capped with domes. They